![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00242147-614.jpg\"\/)
\nA graph from the CSO and Department of Transport shows the number of cars rising over the last 20 years<\/p>\n
Did you ever wonder why it seems to take longer and longer to commute by car?<\/p>\n
There are various reasons.<\/p>\n
But the growing number of cars on the road is a major factor.<\/p>\n
Over a 20-year period from 2005 to 2025, the number of cars rose from 1.6 million to 2.5m, according to figures from the Department of Transport and the Central Statistics Office.<\/p>\n
That is an increase of 56%.<\/p>\n
\nA graph from the CSO and Department of Transport shows the number of cars rising over the last 20 years<\/p>\n
One interesting feature from the graph above is that the only period when car numbers fell was during the financial crisis which began in 2008.<\/p>\n
But the rising numbers on the road over the past two decades comes as the population has grown too.<\/p>\n
In 2005 there were 4.1m residents in the Republic of Ireland. By last year it was 5.4m – an increase of 31%.<\/p>\n
However, the rise in the number of private cars has been proportionately faster than population growth.<\/p>\n
But Ireland’s car ownership rate is the fourth lowest in the EU.<\/p>\n
Stronger economic growth over the past 20 years also means people have more money to buy cars.<\/p>\n
The National Household Travel Survey for 2024 published by the National Transport Authority shows the overwhelming majority of journeys were made by car at 71%. The remainder were: 18% on foot, 4% by bus or coach, 3% in truck or van, 2% by bike and 1% via train, DART or Luas.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/00242148-614.jpg\"\/)
\nA National Transport Authority graph showing the percentage of trips taken by modes of transport<\/p>\n
The housing crisis has also forced many to travel longer distances as they seek more affordable accommodation.<\/p>\n
That frequently means public transport, cycling or walking are not options.<\/p>\n
The trend of employers asking staff to return to the office and cut back on remote working is a factor too.<\/p>\n
UCD Professor of Transport Economics Aisling Reynolds-Feighan says “Covid hid the problem” of the huge increase in the population and workforce.<\/p>\n
But she adds: “Employers are now looking for people to spend more time in the office because there are all sorts of advantages to having people on site working together.<\/p>\n
“It has really brought home this increase in the population and in the labour force.”<\/p>\n
‘Fairly extraordinary period of growth’, says academic<\/p>\n
Dr Pete Lunn, Research Professor with the Economic and Social Research Institute, says most countries struggle to keep infrastructure abreast of economic growth.<\/p>\n
He adds: “We had a fairly extraordinary period of growth, so it happened to us. We are struggling to keep pace, so we are seeing massive congestion.”<\/p>\n
He says Ireland’s climate target means the Government has to invest in giving people alternatives to cars.<\/p>\n
The State has spent heavily on transport with significant emphasis on buses, trains, cycle paths and foot paths while reducing public transport fares.<\/p>\n
Dr Lunn says that lower public transport fares have “worked well” and are a key part of influencing behaviour.<\/p>\n
“If you want to make something attractive to people you make it easy, you make it cheap and you make it fair,” he says.<\/p>\n
Over the past ten years the Budget for the Department of Transport has risen from \u20ac1.8bn in 2016 to \u20ac4.7bn in 2026.<\/p>\n
This year the two biggest spending categories will be public transport and sustainable mobility (including walking and cycling) which will receive \u20ac2.39bn. Roads and road safety is allocated \u20ac1.73bn.<\/p>\n
Professor Reynolds-Feighan says: “They are investing heavily in public transport, but it is really not enough to affect a shift away from private cars.”<\/p>\n
She goes on: “People will use public transport if it is reliable and if it is close in time and money costs to what you get with a private car. Unfortunately, it is not.<\/p>\n
“We have a huge increase in people trying to get to work and public transport does not work for a large share of those people. It does not link where they live and where they work.”<\/p>\n
She says it will require a “huge increase” in public transport provision to reduce the share of journeys by car.<\/p>\n
In the capital she suggests building more light rail and pressing ahead with MetroLink which she predicts will probably take 20 years.<\/p>\n
She says shorter term measures should also proceed, such as connecting Dublin\u2019s three main rail stations so that heavy and light rail are joined up.<\/p>\n
‘Significant increase in public transport usage’, says minister<\/p>\n
Minister for Transport Darragh O\u2019Brien says there has been “a really significant increase in public transport usage”.<\/p>\n
“We actually had record numbers in 2025. About 365m public passenger journeys in one year. It’s over a million a day,” he says.<\/p>\n
Minister O\u2019Brien admits there are “issues” with congestion on Irish roads due to an increase in the number of private cars.<\/p>\n
“But we’ve got to continue to provide the alternatives for people [so] that they can get out of the car and they can use the train, the Luas and the bus, and that’s what’s happening.”<\/p>\n
![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0023ab8e-614.jpg\"\/)
\nMinister for Transport Darragh O’Brien admits there are ‘issues’ with congestion on Irish roads due to an increase in the number of private cars<\/p>\n
The minister has convened a working group on congestion, which he chairs, to work on short term measures in advance of major transport projects being completed.<\/p>\n
He says it is going to examine measures to “alleviate some of the congestion issues that we see, particularly in the Greater Dublin Area, but not exclusively”.<\/p>\n
Another issue is opposition to changes to public transport.<\/p>\n
Dr Lunn says new projects are frequently met by resistance from people who see the downsides before the advantages become clear.<\/p>\n
At present there are pockets of opposition to changes to the bus network as National Transport Authority rolls out Bus Connects.<\/p>\n
Dr Lunn says: “If you cast your mind back to when the Luas construction was ongoing, there was a lot of controversy about whether it would be a white elephant and whether it would really work. And then of course once you have got one everybody wants one.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you ever wonder why it seems to take longer and longer to commute by car? There are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-369576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}